by EJA_2 » Fri Apr 06, 2001 1:37 pm
Stravinsky is indeed interesting. To be influenced by both Debussy and Tchaikovsky <I>would</I> make one interesting. Like Debussy he kind of thought outside of the box. The progression of music reminds me of the atomic model. Mankind started out with something simple, cut-and-dried to explain atomic observations. By the dawn of the twentieth century the Bohr atomic model was still clearly an ordered system to the casual observer, but its complexity was exponentially greater than what had been presented by John Dalton in 1803. Now as the 21st century dawns there are so many exceptions, qualifications and caveats on the general rules that to the uninitiated it just looks like a mess. I think Stravinsky was right in there with Niels Bohr, as far as the progression of classical music to modern classical music. Here is how Stravinsky "drew" his music <A HREF="http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/stravinsky_7.jpg." TARGET=_blank>http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/stravinsky_7.jpg.</A> <BR>Now, just as it takes more and more background, knowledge, and mathematical dexterity to understand the increasing complexity of the atomic model, so it takes more and more background, knowledge, and musical talent to understand the increasing complexity of modern classical music. In both cases, this reduces the appeal to the masses. At the same time, this phenomenon increases its appeal to those who are students of atomic physics or classical music, because it is enjoyable to master something complex and make it work for you. On the other hand it doesn't appeal to someone who just wants to relax and hear some nice music. <P>Now, I would mention here that I'm not including impostors like John Cage who deliberately made their music chaotic and unnappealing as a jesture of disdain for all things ordered, or as a pseudo-religious homage to chance. I don't think Sravinsky was in that category. Some of his music is beautiful and communicative. The rest of it I probably don't have the capacity to understand. Either that or it was the product of dark times in his life. An artist doesn't stop producing just because they are having a bad day, and sometimes, I think, in our efforts to find all of an artist's work, we publish things that would have been better left to rest. <P> -- EJA